Jiang Jinyue burst into the private dining room.
Manager Shi was covered in soup, with slices of tuna sashimi clinging to his shirt and a bright yellow smear of sea urchin staining his crotch. His female subordinate stood nearby, looking petrified.
Ding Ning glared at the disheveled man on the floor with fury written across her face.
"Are you some kind of dog raised by Jiang Jinyue? Biting whoever you see!" Manager Shi pointed at Ding Ning, sneering, "Just because you dress like a man doesn't mean you're actually worth anything."
Ding Ning said nothing. She stepped forward and pressed a miniature stun gun against the man’s bloated torso.
"If I'm a dog," Ding Ning said, her voice calm but her eyes lethal, "then you're a piece of filth not even worth the shit I step on."
Manager Shi felt a surge of numbness in his lower abdomen; he lost all feeling in it almost instantly.
"You bitch, what did you do to me!" Manager Shi glared viciously at Ding Ning. "If anything happens to me today, I’ll make sure your pathetic little company disappears from Longcheng within three days."
Jiang Jinyue locked the door behind her and walked slowly toward Manager Shi. "We’ll see if you manage to ruin my company before I make sure you’re kicked out of your position as manager at Shuotong Investment."
"On what authority? Your status as the adopted daughter of the Su family, or as Su Jing’s mistress—"
Before he could finish the last word, half a bowl of still-warm miso soup was poured over his thigh.
Ignoring the man’s sharp intake of breath, Jiang Jinyue dusted off her hands. While fiddling with her phone, she said, "I actually wanted to leave Manager Shi’s wife some dignity, but unfortunately..."
A video of Manager Shi entering a hotel with a woman began to play.
Manager Shi’s face drained of color. "Turn it off! Turn that off, goddammit!"
The door to the private room suddenly swung open.
Jiang Jinyue turned around to see Lu Chenhuai standing in the doorway. He was wearing a casual knit sweater instead of the white dress shirt he usually favored. His gaze swept over the messy room before landing on Jiang Jinyue’s legs. She usually dressed for comfort, but to look professional today, she had chosen a knee-length skirt. Currently, she was half-crouched in front of Manager Shi, her knees inches from the man’s groin.
Seeing Lu Chenhuai, Manager Shi looked as if he had found a savior and immediately regained his arrogance. "President Lu, you’ve come at the right time. I want to report this. Help me bear witness—these two crazy women beat me up and are trying to extort and threaten me."
Lu Chenhuai ignored him, closed the door, and walked over to Jiang Jinyue.
"Is this the path you’ve chosen for yourself?"
The familiar scent of sandalwood reached her as Lu Chenhuai bent down to steady her by the forearm. Jiang Jinyue used his strength to stand, then immediately stepped back to maintain a respectful distance.
"If President Lu wants to serve as a witness, you can sit on that chair and wait for a while."
Manager Shi might have had no character, but he was observant. He could see that Lu Chenhuai was interested in Jiang Jinyue.
"P-President Lu, it’s all a misunderstanding. A total misunderstanding." The man who had been so arrogant a second ago instantly donned a sycophantic smile.
The numbness from Ding Ning’s stun gun was fading. Manager Shi braced himself against the floor and stood up shakily, his assistant rushing forward to support him.
"President Lu, Miss Jiang’s friend here misunderstood my intentions. She mistook my admiration for Miss Jiang for ulterior motives. I’ve been wronged."
"Is that so? And what do you intend to do about it?"
"Since it’s a misunderstanding, we should just let it go. No need to damage the harmony between us, wouldn't you agree, President Lu?"
How truly shameless. He was framing his harassment and sinister designs on "Boss Yue" as admiration, and trying to use this to curry favor with President Lu.
"Admiration? Is that what you call it when you wait at a female investor’s hotel door until dawn and tell her that your son needs a tutor with the 'upbringing' of our boss?" Ding Ning sneered.
"When did I ever say such a thing?"
Fortunately, they had come prepared. Ding Ning played the recording on her phone.
Manager Shi hadn't expected her to secretly record him; his face shifted through a dozen colors.
"I’m sorry, President Lu. I didn't know you were interested in her. Otherwise, I wouldn't have dared to touch a woman you had your eye on, even if I had ten times the courage."
"Also?"
"N-no, no, I would never harbor inappropriate thoughts about Miss Jiang."
Lu Chenhuai’s gaze swept over Manager Shi. "Before nine o'clock tomorrow morning, I want to see a resignation statement from you issued by Shuotong."
Manager Shi froze. He hadn't expected Lu Chenhuai to demand his resignation right off the bat. He had spent over a decade meticulously climbing the ladder to reach the position of investment manager. Was one casual sentence going to wash away years of effort and sacrifice?
"If I don’t see that resignation announcement, evidence of your embezzlement of company assets, sexual harassment of colleagues, and bribery will be sitting on President Bai’s desk."
Manager Shi slumped like a deflated balloon. After a few seconds, he spoke softly, "Fine, I will resign."
After Manager Shi and his assistant left, a waiter came in to tidy the room and departed. Ding Ning found an excuse to leave as well.
Only Jiang Jinyue and Lu Chenhuai remained in the room. Jiang Jinyue picked up a clean set of utensils and sat at the table, slowly cracking open a crab.
"Would you like to eat, President Lu?"
She hadn't eaten much earlier because that man had disgusted her, and she was still hungry. She had paid for this meal, after all—it would be a waste not to finish it.
"Would you rather eat this filth than accept my investment?"
Jiang Jinyue swallowed the meat she had just extracted from a crab leg. "My tiny company couldn't possibly climb the high ladder that is Lanchuang."
"And Su Jing? Is he high enough for you to climb?"
Jiang Jinyue’s hand paused. She pulled at the corner of her lips and went back to eating. "I don't want to climb anyone."
This sentence made the coldness in Lu Chenhuai’s eyes melt away. He rolled up his sleeves, took the tools from Jiang Jinyue’s hands, and began cracking the crab for her.
"If you want to be a successful businesswoman, the first thing you must abandon is your emotional bias. The Ye family has been in Longcheng for years; it would be easy for them to crush a small company like yours. With Lanchuang Capital as your backing, you’ll go much further, much more steadily."
Jiang Jinyue finished the crab meat in her bowl and smiled faintly. "Thank you for the advice, President Lu."
Lu Chenhuai wiped his hands clean and turned to face her. "Having backbone is a good thing. But you don't need to have so much backbone with everyone."
"And by 'everyone,' who exactly do you mean?"
Jiang Jinyue’s made-up eyes curved upward; her smile was bewitchingly charming.
Lu Chenhuai suddenly leaned forward, hooking his hand around the back of her neck, his watch strap catching in her hair. "If I ever see you lowering yourself to smile for investments again," he said, his thumb brushing away the smudge of makeup at the corner of her mouth, his voice low, "I won’t mind making that little company of yours a subsidiary of Lanchuang."
A knock sounded at the door. "Chenhuai, are you in there?"
Jiang Jinyue reached up and shoved his hand away. "If you aren't afraid of me dragging you off the roof with me, feel free to try your worst."